


Take Me to Church

by notenoughtogivebread



Series: Klaine Advent 2013 [17]
Category: Glee
Genre: Grief/Mourning, Other, Religious Content, Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-28
Updated: 2014-04-28
Packaged: 2018-04-10 05:04:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4378223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notenoughtogivebread/pseuds/notenoughtogivebread
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for Klaine Advent 2013. Blaine and Unique learn about things they have in common in the months after losing Finn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Me to Church

When he entered the choir room now, Blaine touched the plaque with Finn’s picture on it. He knew he wasn’t the only one; he’d noticed Artie pausing there and Marley as well. More than once he stopped himself just in time before making the Sign of the Cross. That would have been embarrassing. It’s just that stopping like that reminded his body so of dipping his fingers in the Holy Water font at St. Rose’s. It seemed a bit odd to think of the choir room as a church, but it surely was sacred space anyway.

One Friday after Sam and he had returned from their visit to New York, he caught himself just as he touched his forehead and changed the gesture to running his hand over his hair. He stood quiet then and looked long at Finn’s face, remembering.

“I didn’t take you for a church-going boy.” Unique’s voice was soft.

He turned to see her sitting at the piano. “I’m not sure whether I am or not, these days—but old habits die hard, you know?”

“My mom and dad love their church, and it’s not the sort of place where the preacher is coming right out and saying anything, but…”  
“You’re not comfortable there?”

“Oh, you know, WADE is very welcome there, but not Unique so much.” She tossed her head and leveled her gaze. “And after all, if church isn’t an excuse for a great hat, what’s the point?”

Blaine barked out a laugh as she struck a pose. She was like Kurt that way, making jokes as a way to push people’s focus off her hurting; it was that realization that made him feel safe enough to talk. “I don’t know. I think I still believe. And I read the psalms. Guess I like the poetry.” He rested his hand on the picture of Finn’s face, tracing the wry smile with his fingertips. ”And, I don’t know, I’d like to think that Carole—and Rachel—haven’t completely lost him, you know?”

He came over and sat beside her on the piano bench, picking out the melody to Amazing Grace. “And I like church music, too. You could really go to town on this one…”

“Or go to church, baby.” 

It was nice, harmonizing, letting her carry the high ringing notes of the old song. It soothed that place in him where all the “What ifs…” about Finn resided.

Unique glanced over at him as they finished, and he returned to picking out bits of old hymns, seeking healing as he felt her eyes on him. “Is this hard with Kurt? He sort of, I don’t know…”

“Doesn’t have receptors for this sort of thing?”

“Well, if you insist on comparing your boyfriend to an android…” Her dimple showed as she flashed her impish smile. “But, seriously, how do you work through that?”

Blaine ducked his head, focusing his gaze on the keys under his hands. “We mostly don’t. I know that all this—it doesn’t comfort him to think that his mom—and Finn—are okay somewhere waiting for him. He just wants them HERE, you know? And if he did believe in God, he’d just be angry with Him all the time. I get it.”

“So, is your church, like, gay friendly, at least?” Unique asked.

“I’m Catholic, Unique.”

“Oh, not so much then.”

——————————————————————————————-

It became something for the two of them, a new source of comfort. Music could bond them, and church music became a place they could abide together. Unique took to slipping sheet music from her favorite hymns, unfamiliar to him, into his bag during Glee. And on days when she had that haunted look in her eyes, when she drew away even from Marley, he would grab her hand after Glee, inviting her to share the piano bench or to join him for coffee.

The bathroom fiasco, as Blaine took to calling it, was one of those defining moments for him—about Unique. This girl with Rachel’s big voice and Kurt’s bravery was, well, political. And he was so interested in how her faith seemed to inform her politics rather than fighting them. It excited him to find another person who shared that with him—it wasn’t about some stupid church teachings based on fears from the Middle Ages, but about his personal feelings about—well, him.

On graduation day, Unique gave Blaine two gifts: one was a gold treble clef pin like the one he had gotten for Finn. The other was a watercolor painting she had made in art class. In calligraphy on the bottom, she had written:

“Let justice flow like a river

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

As he stood holding it, tears in his eyes, she said quietly, “It’s from the prophet Amos. Doctor King loved that verse.”

Blaine let the tears fall then, thinking of all the things they’d lost this year, thinking of her being left behind at this school without Glee. So many things were changing. He hoped that her faith—in God as she saw Him, in herself, in song—would survive.


End file.
